Professor Richard Crook holds a PhD from London University (LSE) and is the coauthor of Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa (1998) and The law, legal institutions and the protection of land rights in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (2007).

He previously taught at the University of Birmingham (Centre of West African Studies), Glasgow University and was the Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (University of London). His areas of specialisation include: governance and administration (particularly decentralisation); state-civil society relations, public service reform and access to justice and land rights particularly in West Africa and South Asia.